Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

This magic picture is a musical fantasy , being based on the children's classic by Antoine Saint-Exupery . It deals with an aviator (Richard Kiley , though Richard Burton was actively pursued for this role) who crashes on the barren desert of Sahara and finds a little alien (Steven Warner) who is a prince on a small planet called asteroid B612 and teaches and guides him about the secrets of importance of love and life . The little boy travels and meets a king (Joss Akland) , a businessman (Clive Revill) , a historian (Victor Spinetti), a General (Graham Crowden) a snake (Bob Fosse) and a fox (Gene Wilder). Based on the known book considered a classic but doesn't do justice , resulting to be slow-moving , a little bit boring and including excessive songs . Great main cast featured by Richard Kiley as a pilot stranded in the desert who counsels a young boy efficiently played by Steven Warner . Excellent support cast plenty of notorious secondaries as Gene Wilder , Joss Ackland , Clive Revill , Victor Spinetti and special mention to choreographer and filmmaker Bob Fosse who carries out a splendid dancing as a snake . Marvelous and colorful cinematography by Christopher Challis , being filmed on location in Tunisia and interiors shot in Eltree studios , Hertfordshire , England. Enjoyable musical score and songs by the classics Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe . The motion picture was well produced and professionally directed by the musical expert Stanley Donen , though is a major letdown for his fans and failed at box office. Donen realized several musical masterpieces , many of them with the help of producer Arthur Freed , and this time of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . As he directed some of the best musicals of history such as ¨On the town¨, ¨Singing in the rain¨, ¨Royal Wedding¨ , ¨It's always fair weather¨, ¨Seven brides for seven brothers ¨, ¨Funny face¨ , among others . Rating : Acceptable and passable . Worthwhile watching .

nice, out not very great ambition, a drawing ad usum delphini more than adaptation, charming, honest, with not inspired songs, prey of its time, not great, not impressive but subject for good entrainment. the tale of Little Prince is only soul of a book. the letters, the drawings, the delight of reading are secrets to feel the profound message or the sense of this extraordinary trip. because the work of Saint - Exupery is not comedy, drama or musical. it is a mirror. so, the great virtue of this small film is to be invitation to discover Sain-Exupery masterpiece.and Steven Warner is perfect road sign. just an instrument to a fabulous castle. out of that, a boy and his need of root. a flower, a snake, few planets, a plain and a dialog with mystics nuances. tale about truth. and freedom of elephant from hat.

This gets 5 stars for pretty good special effects and nice production values. (Director Stanley Donen probably got practice for these pre-CGI effects by directing Fred Astaire dance up the walls in "Royal Wedding")For the rest of it: How can a musical by Lerner & Loewe ("My Fair Lady", "Gigi", "Camelot", "Brigadoon", etc.) directed by Stanley Donen ("Singing in the Rain", "Bedazzled", "Charade", etc.) go wrong, especially if it features a small but notable cast that includes guest shots by Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder? Quite easily, actually.Perhaps part of the problem is the source material. The young adult book THE LITTLE PRINCE is a sweet but didactic tome. Lerner, arguably the best lyric writer of his time (a time including Oscar Hammerstein III) was also a slow and lazy worker. He was also known for filling his body with large amounts of chemicals. He always had a problem with structure and always did better work when he started with good source material ("Pygmalion"/"My Fair Lady").THE LITTLE PRINCE has an episodic structure. One would think Lerner would leap at the opportunity to present songs in different worlds, with characters having such various points of view.Instead, the bulk of the songs are given to the aviator character by Richard Kiley (notable exceptions are Fosse and Wilder). Lerner alters the character of the King and changes the Geographer into an Historian (rendering the character senseless). He drops other promising figures, adds a General to the mix, and makes the whole story even more doctrinaire than the original.Clive Revill and Victor Spinetti do superb jobs in shamefully short roles, as the Businessman and the Historian, respectively. They do not have unique songs. As they are photographed in exactly the same way (through some weird fish-eye lens -- I'm no photographer so I don't know a more precise term), their characters are not distinctive. One may be forgiven for thinking they're on the same world and might be related.In slightly longer roles, Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder have unique songs, and also interesting settings. Both play animals. Fosse is the Snake and he has a sinuous dance that might be beautiful if it weren't shown in bits and pieces (there is also a real snake and it plays a large part in the movie for all you Ophidiophobics -- including me). Wilder is the Fox and he's fairly typical early Wilder. But they're lost in the whole of the movie.And Stanley Donen? Lest we forget, he also directed "Blame it on Rio." To be fair, he apparently helmed only one movie between 1967's "Bedazzled" and 1974's "Little Prince." He may have been rusty.The main problem here is Lerner. Loewe's music is good in his last outing with Lerner, even if the tunes lack his typical hummability. Lerner's lyrics lack his clever wordplay. They're repetitive, redundant (those two words in juxtaposition give you some idea of what the lyrics are like) and lackluster. The actors do their best. Richard Kiley is a strong anchor for the show as a whole. But "The Little Prince" leaves one unsatisfied.

I'm totally mystified by the previous review. This movie is a product of its time -- 1974 -- so why blame it for that? You wouldn't criticize "Don't Look Now" because Donald Sutherland wears wide lapels."The Little Prince" is a pitch-perfect film, beautifully written and filmed, with an amazing sense of humor. Yes, it's totally dated, and some of the songs are horrible, but it's got an originality even "West Side Story," another classic stylish film, can't match.If you want irony, American humor or 21st century attitude, avoid this film like the plague. But if you can appreciate brilliant little films that wear their hearts on their sleeves don't miss this film.An added bonus: in Bob Fosse's spectacular five minute dance you can see every dance move Michael Jackson ever made.